The present invention relates to trays and, more particularly, to a laboratory specimen tray for the organization of medical and scientific specimens for improving continuity of case/patient identification and reduction in the mislabeling or mixing of specimens between patients.
On any given day, across the globe, millions of patient specimens are submitted to laboratories for testing. Since the beginning of laboratory medicine, however, a consistent problem that has plagued this system, and that problem being lost, missing, misplaced, mislabeled specimens or mixing of two or more patients' specimens. This is an issue that has been identified by various agencies as a source of significant patient error. Despite reasonable care by healthcare workers, one patient's specimens are occasionally mixed with another patient's case, for example when the tissue processing cassettes or other containers are mislabeled, which has the potential for causing patients harm or even death.
Typically, specimen(s) from a patient, upon receipt in the laboratory, are accessioned in the laboratory information system, and tissue processing cassettes are labeled for the specimen(s). Those elements (requisition, patient specimen(s) and tissue cassette(s)) are then added to the queue of patient specimens for processing by the pathologist (or designee) in a grossing area of the pathology lab awaiting submission for testing. This queue typically consists of multiple patient specimens, and their associated labeled tissue cassettes and requisition, are placed, in order, in a loose manner in line with other patient cases. Because they are loose, and not held together by a mechanical device, different patient cases can accidentally be mixed with other patient case(s) awaiting processing, resulting in specimens being mishandled and mixed up with another patient's specimens. If the patients have similar specimens (i.e. both patients having tissue biopsies from the same location, such as colon or stomach) the ability to identify such mixing of cases by the pathologist reading the completed slides is nearly completely absent, even if the patient cross identification is identified, (i.e. two different sources of specimens, such as colon biopsy and cervical biopsy).
Currently, there are no devices that provide this type of protection. Every specimen is just simply placed in a queue on a counter, which is where the inadvertent mixing occurs. Because there are no devices helping to separate cases completely, the specimen/patient containers are then allowed to move into the area of the next patient providing the wrong diagnosis.
As can be seen, there is a need for a laboratory specimen tray for the organization of medical and scientific specimens for improving continuity of case/patient identification and reduction in the mislabeling or mixing of specimens between patients.